Evening Organic Farm Thai Cooking Class – 5 Dish Categories
An afternoon-into-evening cooking class on an organic farm outside Chiang Mai: market stop, herb picking and five dish categories, eaten as dinner as the sun goes down.
- Duration
- Half day, evening (15:00–21:30)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Max group
- 20 pax
The evening class is the same organic farm and the same five-category menu as the half day, shifted to the cooler end of the afternoon — and it is quietly the best-value dinner in Chiang Mai. You are picked up at 15:00, you cook what you eat, and you are dropped back at your hotel around 21:30 with leftovers in a box.
You stop at a local fresh market on the way out, when the late-afternoon trade is in full swing and the produce for the evening is coming in. Your instructor walks you through it: lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, holy basil, the chilli scale, palm sugar, shrimp paste, and the practical business of what to buy and what to swap when you are shopping at home. Then it is roughly forty-five minutes into the countryside.
At the farm you take a basket into the garden while the light is soft, pick your own herbs and vegetables, and then work your own station: curry paste, curry, a stir-fry, a soup and spring rolls, five dishes cooked by you. Pounding raw spices into paste and eating the resulting curry an hour later is the moment the cuisine stops being mysterious. Everything is eaten as it comes off the wok, water, coffee and tea are on tap throughout, and whatever you cannot finish is boxed up.
Cooking outdoors after the heat of the day is genuinely more pleasant than doing it at noon, which is why regulars pick this slot. Every dish can be vegetarian or vegan and as mild or as fierce as you like, and non-cooking companions can join for a 400 THB visitor charge.
- Cook in the cool of the late afternoon rather than the midday heat
- Dinner you cooked yourself on a working organic farm
- Guided fresh-market stop on the way out of the city
- Herb picking in the garden in the best light of the day
- Five categories: curry paste, curry, stir-fry, soup and spring rolls
- Your own station, your own wok, your own curry paste
- Vegetarian and vegan versions of everything; spice level your choice
- Leftovers boxed, plus recipe e-book and online photo album
- Return hotel transfer included
What's included
- ✓ Return hotel transfer within a 3 km radius of the Chiang Mai Old City
- ✓ Guided visit to a local fresh market
- ✓ Guided tour of the organic farm and herb tasting from the garden
- ✓ All ingredients for the class
- ✓ Your own individual cooking station
- ✓ English-speaking cooking instructor
- ✓ Step-by-step recipe e-book
- ✓ Drinking water, coffee and tea
- ✓ Everything you cook — eat on site or take it away
- ✓ Online photo album after the class
- Hotel pick-up beyond the 3 km radius of the Old City (ask us for a quote)
- Alcoholic drinks
- Non-cooking companions (visitor charge applies)
- Gratuities
- Travel insurance
- 15:00
Hotel pick-up
Collected between 15:00 and 15:30 from hotels within 3 km of the Old City.
- 15:45
Fresh market tour
A guided walk through a busy local market at its afternoon peak.
- 16:30
Drive to the organic farm
About 45 minutes into the countryside.
- 17:15
Farm tour and herb picking
Walk the organic beds in the late-afternoon light and harvest what you need.
- 17:45
Curry paste and spring rolls
Pound your chosen paste, then roll and fry your own spring rolls.
- 18:45
Soup and stir-fry
A soup and a wok dish at your own station, eaten as you go.
- 19:45
Curry and dinner
Finish your curry and sit down to the full meal under the lights.
- 20:45
Boxing up and photos
Leftovers boxed, group photos for the online album, recipe e-book confirmed.
- 21:00
Return transfer
Back at your hotel by around 21:30.
Yes. Every dish on the menu can be prepared vegetarian or vegan — tofu and vegetables replace the chicken, prawn and pork, and the fish sauce and shrimp paste are swapped for soy-based alternatives. Tell us when you book so the kitchen can shop accordingly, and mention any allergy (nuts and shellfish are the usual ones) again to your instructor on the day.
You choose. The menu is organised into categories and you pick one dish from each, so nobody at the same table has to cook the same lunch. You can also decide how hot each dish is — Thai-hot, mild or no chilli at all.
Return transfer is included for hotels within a 3 km radius of the Chiang Mai Old City. The farm is about 45 minutes away in the countryside, with a short stop at a local market on the way out.
Yes — the evening session follows the same structure as the morning class: fresh-market walk, drive to the farm, garden tour and herb picking, then five dishes at your own station. Only the timing changes.
Light, comfortable clothes you do not mind getting a little splashed, and closed shoes rather than flip-flops — you will be standing at a wok and walking through a market and a garden. Aprons are provided. Long hair is easier tied back.
Yes — that is one of the nicest details of this school. Everything you cook is yours, boxed up if you would rather eat it later at your hotel.
Yes, and Thai cooking classes are one of the best family activities in Chiang Mai. Younger children usually share a station with a parent rather than working a hot wok alone. Tell us the ages when you book so we can arrange the right set-up.